I know what you’re thinking: “I’d love to work on my values, my mission and my ultimate purpose – but I’ve already got too much on my plate!”

And the answer is you’re probably right. You probably are too busy for that kind of thinking.

Why? Because though your mind is great at creating stuff, it’s terrible at tracking it. And yet there’s a good chance you’re tracking tons of stuff in your head right now. Stuff that drains your energy and clogs your creativity. Stuff that makes it hard to stay afloat day-to-day, let alone find the time and space to think bigger.

The solution? Contrary to common wisdom the answer is not to start from the top (mission, purpose, values) and work down. It’s to master the bottom (getting things done) and work up.

Start with efficiency. Then, when you’re no longer drowning, think about which way to paddle.

WHAT IS THE GETTING THINGS DONE METHOD?

David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) sets out to tackle exactly this problem. It’s a collection of processes and habits whose main outputs are:

A clean and updated calendar of time-critical actions;

A clear, current and comprehensive list of next actions you can take anywhere, anytime, without the need for further thought or clarification;

A full list of outcomes (big and small) that you’re committed to achieving in the next 12 months; and

A complete system to organise and keep track of all the ‘stuff’ in your life.

The result? By implementing GTD you’ll:

Never let anything important slip by again;

Always have pre-prepared options of actionable and productive things to get on with;

Have total oversight of everything you’ve committed to in the near future; and

Have a totally clear head with no need to mentally track or remember anything.

In short, GTD is a powerful system that anyone (from students to parents to top CEOs) can use to bring “life” under control.

But its benefits go beyond quick, profound and lasting productivity gains. GTD’s greatest reward is a new sense of clarity, stability and flow. By getting everything out of your head and into a trusted system, you’ll trust yourself more. You’ll know when to say no and yet still feel confident handling anything that comes up.

Most rewarding of all is the space and energy you’ll buy yourself to take risks. You’ll naturally start working on bigger, more meaningful aspects of life.

I first read Getting Things Done ~10 years ago and can corroborate all the above. I simply can’t overstate its potential for life-changing impact.

GTD OVERVIEW

So how does it work? The GTD Method can be crunched into SCORE + Plan:

And yet all too often, it’s not common practice. Making it so will bring a stillness, clarity and energy to your mind that will transform your life.

Naturally, the truth is rarely pure and never simple. Let’s work through each step in theory and practice below.

STEP 1 – STOCKPILE

Stockpiling means capturing all your outstanding stuff. To do so, you must gather every out of place and unfinished thing in your head and your world into a few external inboxes. These inboxes then feed your GTD system.

It’s a vital step. Why? Because anything that doesn’t get in your system will stay on your mind. And anything that stays on your mind eats energy and kills creativity.

But what is stuff exactly? What are inboxes? And how do you get stuff into them? Great questions. Let’s dig deeper.

WHAT IS STUFF?

Stuff is:

Anything (an action, commitment, project or object) that…

… you want, should, could, would like, ought or need to act on, now or later; or

… you think of as even slightly unfinished or out of place.

It’s:

The project you’re leading at work;

The promise you made to your partner;

The pile of unopened letters on your desk;

The trip to Thailand you’ve always dreamed of; and

The old freezer that’s in the garage and needs selling.

Your life is full of these “open-loops”; the stuff that tugs away at your mind saying, “Hey! Don’t forget me!”.

These energy killers are the fuel that fire GTD.

WHAT ARE INBOXES?

Inboxes are anywhere that stuff collects or can be collected.

They come in two flavours:

Major Inboxes – The few inboxes that feed your GTD process; and

Satellite Inboxes – Anywhere else that stuff naturally collects.

I’m a digital-first, long-term traveller with five major inboxes:

My backpack;

My personal email;

My Faster To Master email;

A DropBox folder for digital files (e.g., scans, screenshots and downloads); and

These major inboxes are the last stop for stuff before it enters my GTD system.

I also have a number of satellite inboxes:

Physical:

My wallet;

My current home; and

My PO Box in the UK.

Digital:

Scanning apps;

Note taking apps;

Messaging apps; and

Ancillary email accounts.

Psychological:

My mind.

The goal of stockpiling is to empty these satellite inboxes into a major inbox for clarification and organisation.

Depending on your lifestyle and preferences you may have more satellite inboxes, including:

Physical:

In-tray(s) – At work and at home;

Your home(s) – Every drawer, cupboard and container in every room;

Your car(s) – Inside, outside and the cars themselves;

Storage units – Both in your home(s) and out of them;

Your bag(s) – Work, travel, gym, children’s and everyday bags;

Postbox(es) – At work and at home; and

Desk drawers – Worth re-stating.

Digital:

Apps; and

Social media accounts.

HOW DO YOU STOCKPILE?

Stockpiling is the act of emptying all the stuff from all your satellite inboxes and capturing it in a few major inboxes. Think of it like a spring-clean for life.

Bringing everything into just a few places has two advantages:

It gives you a total overview of everything out of place and unfinished in your life; and

It lets you process all those things quickly and effectively in steps 2 (clarify) and 3 (organise) of the GTD method.

If you’re new to GTD you’ll need to set up. To do so:

Make a checklist of all of your satellite inboxes – Be specific and use the list above to help. You may be surprised how many you have.

Set up at least one major digital and physical inbox – A single folder on your computer and a large cardboard box will do.

Schedule at least a full day to take inventory of your life – A national holiday is a good opportunity for this.

Once your GTD system is running, stockpiling becomes a weekly ritual that should take under an hour as part of a weekly review.

For now, go through each satellite inbox and get it to zero by moving anything out of place or unfinished into one of your major inboxes.

Some tips:

Avoid processing – You will be very tempted to process as you go. Unless it takes less than 2 minutes or you have a lot of time – don’t. Your efficiency will greatly increase if you batch all your stockpiling first and then do your processing. For now, just move stuff into your major inboxes.

Use placeholders – Sometimes, stuff will be too impractical to move (e.g., an old fridge that needs selling). Other times, an inbox may be too time-consuming or difficult to process right now (e.g., your office, if you’re at home). In these cases, leave stuff where it is and use a digital or physical note as a placeholder to get it in your system (e.g., sell fridge, stockpile office). Remember, the important thing is to get stuff off your mind and into your GTD system.

That’s the basics of stockpiling! By the time you’re done your satellite inboxes should feel empty, organised or captured for later processing. Your major inboxes, however, are likely to be overflowing with stuff, which brings us neatly to…

STEP 2 – CLARIFY

N.b., Though Clarify (step 2) and Organise (step 3) are separate steps, they actually happen together. Read both sections first, then turn to the top item in your inboxes.

Clarifying what stuff is and what to do about it is likely the biggest bottleneck in your productivity. It’s also one of the most useful habits in the GTD method.

To clarify, you must answer the following three questions for each thing in your inboxes:

What is it? It’s surprising how often we don’t really think about what a thing is or why it’s important.

What’s the desired outcome? What conditions would truly let you feel this thing is complete?

What is the next action? What is the very next physical action you can take to progress this thing?

You must answer these questions. Until you do, stuff never moves past the inbox, no matter where you file it.

Instead, it will sit in your system or head like an “amorphous blob of undoability”. The result? You will resist acting on it until you are forced to.

Why do we pursue this pattern so predictably? Because we are naturally “lazy” and answering these questions does take a small spike of mental effort.

The good news? In Allen’s words: “You often have to think about stuff more than you realise, but not as much as you’re afraid you might.”

HOW DO YOU CLARIFY?

Clarification is mostly simple, but it can be helpful to work through some examples to see how it works. Here are a few to get started:

What’s the desired outcome? Get the car ‘all-cleared’ by a certified mechanic.

Next action(s)? Call garage to book in a service.

Can you spot the mistake in the last next action? There’s no phone number!

A next action should be complete enough that someone else could do it without needing further clarification or thought.

If you have the phone number, add it to the next action: “Call garage (+XX-XXX-XXX-XXXX) to book a service.”

If you don’t yet have the number then “Call garage” is not the next action. Instead, the next action is “Find garage number online” or “Ask Joe for the garage phone number.”

Remember, a GTD next action is the very next physical thing you can do, without further thought or clarification, to make progress on an outcome.

GRINDING TO ZERO

Processing your major inboxes may feel like a daunting task. But the act of clarifying what stuff in your life is and the next thing you can do about it is magic. Doing so will unlock deep pockets of energy, clarity and productivity.

To help grind your way through steps 2 and 3, stick closely to the following rules:

Always start with the top item on the pile.

Always handle only one item at a time.

Never put anything back into an inbox.

No cherry picking; no pile making; no putting back stuff that forces you to think. Capisce?

Awesome, because with clarification in-hand it’s time to…

STEP 3 – ORGANISE

Organising is the process of:

Doing, delegating or deferring next actions;

Tidying useful but non-actionable ‘stuff’ into its proper place; and

Trashing what’s left.

With the right buckets, your system will flow like good plumbing. Without them, it will back-flow into your head.

SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS

To get organised, you’ll need some tools to get started:

A calendar for time-critical meetings, events and actions;

A way to take notes for lists of actions, outcomes, plans and ideas;

A filing system to store information you may need to reference but can’t act on; and

A trash can (plus, optionally, a shredder if you handle sensitive documents).

Should you go physical or digital? That’s totally up to you. Allen likes physical bases, filing cabinets and paper. My system is location independent and paperless. Both can work. All that matters is that your setup is fun, simple and easy for you.

Now, open up your note taking tool and put the following headings at the top of four new notes:

Waiting for – A list of all things you are waiting for from others;

Next actions – A list of every doable next action to progress an outcome;

Outcomes– A list of every multi-step outcome you’re committed to realising in the next 12 months; and

Someday – Outcomes or actions you may like to take one day, under different circumstances.

Plans – Visualisations, milestones and next steps for more complex multi-step outcomes; and

Ticklers – Stuff you will “mail-to-self” for later re-processing.

Within your ticklers, set up 43 folders:

Label folders 1 through 12 with the names of the months (January to December); and

Label folders 13 through 43 with the numbers 1 to 31.

How do these work? Let’s say it’s March and you have a flyer for an event you might want to attend in September. It doesn’t really make sense to process that now. Your tickler system lets you file the flier away into one of your month-folders (e.g, “August” or “September”) for later re-processing.

Meanwhile, the 31 day-folders are used to subdivide your stuff into the days for which it’s relevant in the current month (e.g., “March”).

Each week you review and reorganise your ticklers as part of step 4 (Review). Discarding stuff that’s no longer relevant or splitting stuff from a new month into the appropriate day-folders.

The result? A simple, handy and granular way to surface anything that needs stockpiling or processing at the start of each day.

And there you have it, the bones of your new GTD system.

GETTING ORGANISED

With your tools in place, and your first inbox item clarified, you now have five choices:

Do – If a next action takes less than 2 minutes, do it now;

Delegate – If a next action is not something “only you can do”, delegate it;

Defer – Commit to acting on a next action at a specific or general time in the near future;

Tidy – Find a proper place for everything and put everything in its proper place; and

Trash – Dispose of anything no longer important or needed.

Clearing an inbox item may be as simple as:

Performing one < 2-minute action (e.g., tidying something away); or

Trashing an idea that no longer seems relevant or important.

But normally, organising stuff in your GTD system usually takes a little more work.

A PROPER PLACE FOR EVERYTHING

Let’s review example 2 from step 2 (Mike’s pirate birthday) to see what this means:

Example 2: An invitation to Mike’s Pirate-themed birthday dinner on the 28th of April.

What is it? An event that needs attending.

What’s the desired outcome? Be a great friend on Mike’s birthday (28 Apr).

Make contexts current – Add and remove contexts as they gain or lose relevance; and

Be a minimalist – Use the fewest number of contexts you can get away with.

Contexts are valuable because they help you:

Remember to do the right things in the right place, at the right time or with the right people; and

Batch similar actions together to avoid switching costs.

Remembering the milk when you’re out, crushing “calls” while in “phone mode” or having a pre-prepared list of “offline” tasks when the internet breaks are all great examples of how contexts can dramatically improve engagement (step 5).

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

The first few times you clarify and organise your inboxes will feel difficult. The reward in clarity, energy and headspace, however, make this brain squeeze well worth the effort.

What’s more, with time, testing and practice, you’ll find tools and structures you like, you’ll process stuff faster and what once felt hard will become second nature.

One last time: keep your systems simple. It happens to everyone, at some point your GTD system will become a monster. When it does, start again and come back to basics. You’ll be amazed how far you may have strayed from the original vision.

EXTRA HABITS:

And over the years I’ve also woven some extra, non-GTD habits into those processes:

Gratitude journaling to remind myself of 3 things each AM and PM that I’m grateful for;

Mindfulness journaling to clear my head and solving problems (see this post for more);

Reflection to identify what went well, what I learned and what opportunities I have to improve each day and for each project;

Tracking of time, habits and value infractions to measure how I’m comparing against my best self; and

Scheduling deep-work to make sure I get at least 6 hours of undisturbed time each day.

TIPS:

If I were starting with GTD again today here is what I’d tell 20-year-old Arthur:

Master the basics – Right from day 1 you’ll be tempted to make big changes to the GTD system. Don’t. Read the book and master the basics first, even if it’s not your forever system. Then, when you start feeling confident…

Experiment – Don’t be afraid to make your system yours. That said, don’t change too much at once. Understand the baseline, then make small, specific changes. This will let you identify improvements clearly and retreat from bad ideas fast.

Use the space to think big picture – GTD will quickly buy you a lot of mental and physical space. Use it to identify what’s important. Then prioritise ruthlessly. Otherwise, the gap will fill with unimportant things and you’ll be twice as efficient, just as busy and no more effective.

Re-read GTD once per year – Each reading will bring some new and more subtle aspect of the system to your attention. Or help you simplify a system that’s out of control.

And there you have it! A quick tour through the paperless, mobile GTD system that keeps my head clear and life humming.

CONCLUSION

That’s it! There’s lots to take in and plenty more that I’ve missed. Luckily, there’s a huge community around GTD so if you come across something tricky, there’s often plenty of answers a quick google away. Allen’s own site gettingthingsdone.com is full of resources to help you get started. And of course, nothing beats reading the original book.

If you’re new to GTD I hope you found something here that was interesting or helpful. I really can’t recommend reading Allen’s book strongly enough. It totally changed my life.

If you’re a GTD user already – what did you think? What are your favourite tips? Have I said something here you think could be clearer? What important points did I miss? Perhaps you disagree with this book crunch entirely! In which case, let me know! I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

For now, though, I’ll leave you with one final thought. GTD and productivity systems may change your life, but they aren’t your life. Your system is only as useful as the improvements it makes in you and the world around you. If you’re spending 20 hours per week building and maintaining the perfect GTD process, something’s not right.

The inverse is also true, so long as you feel clearer, happier, more confident and more effective – you’re heading in the right direction. Have fun, experiment and trust your instincts.

And finally, whenever you get lost in the details just remember Jacob Bronowski’s wise words, “The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye… The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.”

Still curious? Read this next...

Arthur is a learning-freak, slow-thinker, and writer who loves helping curious, busy people digest chewy topics fast. One of his passions is language learning. Send yourself his Free Ultimate Language Learning Guide today to save you or a friend thousands of dollars and hours on your journey to fluency.

Hi Arthur, I was hoping you could clarify something for me. Do your outcomes end up in one of your drop box documents (mission/vision/goals/focus/projects)?

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11 months ago

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Arthur

Hi Kieran, my outcomes list is stored in the file “5. Projects (1y)”.

Sorry for the confusion. I changed the terminology (and the filename, but only after taking the screenshots) because “Outcomes” more concisely describes the contents of the file than “Projects”.

I’ve made a note to update the pictures in the last section of the article and added a note to the text for the time being. Great spot!

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10 months ago

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Kieran Lonergan

Perfect. Thank a lot!

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10 months ago

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Ozzy

Definitely enjoyed the read, I need to be more cognizant of the systems I have in place.

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11 months ago

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Arthur

Thanks, Ozzy – so long as your systems leave you feeling more happy, productive and peaceful than you would be without them then they are good systems. Good luck and go well!

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11 months ago

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Francois Richard

Thanks @Arthur,

I really like how prescriptive your folder layout is. Could you elaborate more on how you use Things versus the DropBox Folder ?

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11 months ago

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Arthur

Of course, Francois – to keep it simple I have a very clear line between the two. Things has only two purposes, it is: (a) a major inbox (letting me capture and sync passing thoughts across all my devices); and (b) a repository of next actions (in the strictest sense) organised by context Dropbox is for everything else (including my outcome list and plans). Things (as with Omnifocus, Remember the Milk and all the other productivity app options) is designed to allow me to do much more (e.g., serving as my outcome list, allowing multiple tagging etc.). And trust me,… Read more »

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11 months ago

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Francois Richard

Thanks Arthur,
Few questions:
-Then how do you use your Dropbox folders for Inbox and NextAction ?
-Could you actually discuss a bit more / show some screen shots on how you use Things ?

Thanks,

FR

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11 months ago

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Arthur

My pleasure, FR. My major inbox in DropBox is just a folder “* Inbox” where I stockpile files and scans that need clarifying and processing (e.g., a pdf of a utility bill that needs filing) This complements my Things “Inbox” where I stockpile text notes until I get around clarifying and processing them (e.g., a reminder to “buy toothpaste” or “Read Getting Things Done”). When it comes to using Things, the best place to start is CulturedCode’s Things manual. My implementation is super standard with one exception: I use the “Project Folders” as “Context Folders” and don’t use the tagging… Read more »

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11 months ago

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Eduardo

Impresionante! Great info! You have motivated me to try again with GTD

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11 months ago

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Arthur

Thanks, Eduardo! I can’t tell you how many times my system has grown into an unmanageable mess (though never so much that I was less effective without it). The secret I’ve found is to re-read the book and always come back to the simplest solution possible. If you couldn’t do it with pen and paper, don’t do it! Good luck!

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11 months ago

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Kyki

Thank you so much for the crunch! I am motivated to actually trying this out. (Actions I have taken: did a brain dump last night after reading this article, to clear all the things in my head. And trust me, I had the best sleep in a while.) So now I have ordered the original book and plan to build up my own system.
Also, good luck with your dream of becoming an NYTBS!!! I think your work is definitely on the path to help you achieve that goal!

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11 months ago

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Arthur

That’s amazing to hear Kyki, I’m so glad you enjoyed the brain dump. There’s a comprehensive “Trigger List” (like a checklist for possible open loops) in the book which you’ll definitely find useful! I keep a copy of it on my computer and run through it each week to make sure I’ve scoured every corner of my brain for things I’ve forgotten to capture. Thank you also for your support – it’s a bit of an arbitrary goal, but it’s always good to have a guiding star to aim towards. The most important thing is that you took something from… Read more »